Sonoma Matsuri Demo – 2014

On May 24th, 2014, DeLeon Judo Club (head sensei Henry Kaku) provided a judo demonstration at the Sonoma County Masturi Festival, in Santa Rosa, CA. The mission of Sonoma County Matsuri is to share and promote Japanese Arts & Culture, and it is part of DeLeon Judo Club’s mission to promote judo as a Japanese art. To this end, DeLeon Judo has been a participant of the matsuri for the last five years.

Sensei Kaku led a dozen students through a demonstration of basic falling instruction, explaining the obvious need to never stop practicing these skills. The everyday usefulness of being able to roll was shown as one sempai shoved another from behind. Next came demonstrations of various throws – leg, hip, hand, and sacrifice throws. The students showed off their skills using sute geiko (no resistance, back and forth). A drill was then used to show how the club practices fast throwing – uke rushes in to tori, who immediately gets a grip and throws uke without hesitation.

A few choreographed self-defense techniques were performed. Among the attacks were a grab for a purse, a “drunken headlock”, and a couple of knife attacks. The unarmed attacks were performed using an attacker who was physically considerably bigger than the victim, and included a flying scissors throw (Kani Basami) and flying arm bar. These are spectacular throws, and always crowd favorites.

To finish the demo, several rounds of randori were played, giving a good view into what competitive judo really looks like.

This 20 minute demonstration was performed before an audience of approximately 100 people. The feedback was positive, with many questions being asked throughout the rest of the day. DeLeon Judo Club performs several demonstrations a year, at cultural events such as Sonoma Matsuri, as well as at local schools. The club meets Tuesday and Thursday nights, in Petaluma, CA.